By TIM HUNDT
GAYS MILLS, Wis. — An overflow crowd of about 250 people packed into the gays Mills Community Center on Feb. 22 as a newly formed citizens group held its first public meeting to organize opposition to the proposed MariBell high voltage transmission line, setting the stage for a long fight over the project’s route and necessity.
The meeting was the first large scale gathering of the No765 Line organization, which has grown out of kitchen table conversations and small landowner briefings into a regional coalition that now spans multiple counties.
Emcee Edie Ehlert (Crawford Stewardship Project) told the crowd the group’s volunteers had already mailed letters and postcards to potentially affected landowners, hosted four landowner meetings and helped spur town and county resolutions that demand more information from Dairyland Power Cooperative and its partners.
Ehlert said the grassroots effort has been fueled by neighbors realizing the project is real only after seeing maps with a 765 kilovolt corridor drawn across their homes and fields.
“This has not become real for people until you are looking at a map and you see that line and you say I need to pay attention to this,” said Ehlert. “Once that happens folks are going door to door they are researching and they are showing up in rooms like this.”
She ticked through early political wins, including resolutions from at least six townships in Crawford, Vernon, and Richland counties and from the Kickapoo Valley Reserve, all pressing for detailed information about the project. She also pointed to county level action in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
“Just this week the Crawford County Board unanimously passed a resolution asking for information,” said Ehlert. “And the Houston County Board in Minnesota passed a resolution in opposition to the line unless Dairyland conclusively demonstrates that this 765 line is the least impactful alternative. That is a very big deal.”
Ehlert closed her introduction by crediting longtime organizer and landowner Rob Danielson as the intellectual backbone of the movement before turning the microphone over to him.
“It is Rob’s experience and expertise that are really the foundation of the No 765 Line group,” said Ehlert. “He has been working on these efforts since 2010 and he knows this process inside and out.”
Danielson points to Patton study and says project is not a done deal
Before diving into maps and local impacts, Danielson opened by citing a recent analysis by independent market monitor David Patton, who reviews Midcontinent Independent System Operator planning. Danielson told the crowd that Patton’s study questioned the need and cost effectiveness of parts of the long range transmission portfolio that includes large 765 kilovolt projects like MariBell.
“An independent market monitor whose job is to protect ratepayers has already raised serious questions about this build out,” said Danielson. “When someone like David Patton looks at the numbers and says the benefits are not adding up that should make every one of us and every regulator hit the pause button.”
He said Patton’s findings reinforce what local opponents have been arguing, that the combination of flat demand and existing transmission projects undercuts the case for another huge line across the Driftless.
“When you line up what the market monitor is saying with what people on the ground are seeing it tells a consistent story,” said Danielson. “We are being asked to accept a massive expansion project at a time when demand is flat and when there are cheaper and far less destructive options already on the table.”
Danielson frames line as place change not routine project
Danielson then asked affected landowners from Vernon, Crawford, Richland and Sauk counties to raise their hands. Hands went up around the room and a few people from Minnesota followed. He used the show of hands to underline how quickly awareness had spread once the first mailings went out.
He told the crowd this project is far from inevitable and that history shows large transmission expansions can be stopped when landowners organize and regulators are forced to examine alternatives.
“Maribel is not a done deal,” said Danielson. “Opposition is making substantial gains toward winning in the court of public opinion and in increasing the use of the rights we are given under state law.”
Danielson said at least 17 major expansion transmission projects have been halted around the country and that utility planners themselves often cited intense landowner opposition and the availability of better alternatives as key reasons.
“There are 17 expansion transmission lines that have been stopped in the United States,” said Danielson. “The first thing that was mentioned in those cases was literally the term intense landowner opposition and after that the states looked at the proposals and said there is no need for this and there are better options.”
He warned that MariBell would be unlike the large projects rural residents have seen before, cutting a new 765 corridor through the heart of the Driftless Area rather than upgrading existing routes.
“As my neighbor put it this ain’t just another big power line,” said Danielson. “This would be a place change and many of our precious assets will be placed at undue risk if Dairyland fails to act on our urgent public input over the next few months of the public information phase.”
Critique of planning and alternatives
Danielson argued that the Midcontinent Independent System Operator and regional utilities have ignored cheaper and less damaging alternatives including upgrades to existing 345 kilovolt lines and a buried high voltage direct current project that is already under construction in Iowa and Illinois.
He said planning documents show that utilities modeled at least two statewide routes that would have kept new lines inside existing corridors and a third approach that would have relied on buried DC lines along rail and highway routes, only to drop those options last year in favor of a new overhead route across the Driftless.
“In their wisdom the regional utilities did examine non Driftless routes that use existing 345 kilovolt transmission lines,” said Danielson. “They had an entire path that could go across the whole state without impacting any new corridor and then in 2024 they simply disregarded those options and introduced hundreds of square miles of new disturbed habitat through the land that we love.”
He added that buried DC technology already being built in the same regional grid could move bulk power with far fewer conflicts.
“You can bury high voltage DC and you cannot bury AC because it is too wasteful and too hot,” said Danielson. “When you look at the map of the DC line now under construction you can see that its destination substations are within fifteen miles of the same substation Maribel wants to hit. We already have a project that can do this job without cutting a brand new scar across Wisconsin.”
Danielson also challenged the premise that new mega lines are needed to serve local growth and data centers. He said utilities own planning data show that demand has flattened rather than surged.
“Our energy use in 2024 is less than it was in 2004,” said Danielson. “Our demand for transmission is down and this is not about giving us reliability or power. Badger Coulee and a dozen other lines already provide more power than we possibly need.”
Warning about the public information window
Much of Danielson’s talk focused on the brief window before Dairyland files its application with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, a period he called the public information phase. He said the utility has already been slow to respond to landowners who asked for detailed parcel maps and impact information last fall.
“This fall a sizable number of impacted landholders sent letters to Dairyland requesting massive information,” said Danielson. “And on February 19 we learned that none of them had received a word back while the company was one hundred and thirty two days into what should be the public information phase.”
He contrasted that with a recent 345 kilovolt project by another utility in which landowners received detailed maps and one on one meetings at the very first open house nearly a year before the application was filed.
“The record shows that for another line every landowner got detailed maps and meetings at the first open house more than three hundred days before the application went in,” said Danielson. “What Dairyland showed at its last open houses was a big poster where you could not even tell if your house was on the map. That is just not good enough.”
He urged landowners not to wait for regulators before documenting the preciousness of their land and communities and sending those concerns directly to Dairyland now.
“You go and you look at the world around you and you find the natural sensitivities and the community wisdom where you live,” said Danielson. “You start formulating arguments about how this transmission line will not be good for those things and you send that to Dairyland and you say please consider this when you write your application.”
Danielson described three levels of response that he believes are needed, beginning with support for directly impacted landowners, extending to local governments and ending with state law reforms that would steer mega projects into consolidated corridors and encourage buried DC.
“We can widen our stand public servant by public servant and elected official by elected official,” said Danielson. “When you go to see a lawmaker you need an ask and one powerful ask is to require utilities to co locate new mega transmission with existing corridors and rail or interstate routes and to prioritize modern high voltage DC that can be buried.”
Concrete impacts on homes farms and businesses
Using aerial imagery and distance measurements, Danielson walked through a series of examples where the likely 250 foot wide corridor would fall directly over homes barns or small businesses if the new 765 line follows the existing 161 kilovolt path.
He pointed to one house already less than two hundred feet from the current line and showed how a wider easement would cut through the lawn and remove nearly all surrounding trees. A more startling slide showed an Amish bakery and a neighboring farm with nearly their entire operation inside the assumed easement.
“Look at this house where the entire new machine shed sits inside the easement area and every tree that family planted for privacy and beauty would be wiped out,” said Danielson. “These folks did not have this in mind when they built that house and the Amish bakery up the road never imagined their whole business could end up under a 765 line.”
He also warned that metal sheds and farm buildings beneath or near the new line would act as conductors for electromagnetic fields and that specialty operations such as maple syrup production could be directly harmed if forests are cleared for the corridor.
Wildlife noise and health concerns
Danielson devoted a portion of his talk to what he called under appreciated effects on wildlife and rural soundscapes. He displayed photos of corona discharge where moisture around energized lines creates bands of ultraviolet light invisible to humans but glaring to many animals.
“Animals see power lines as lines of flickering light stretching across the horizon,” said Danielson. “That creates powerful avoidance for birds raptors bees cattle deer trout and most of the wild things we care about and that means migration breeding and grazing patterns are all disrupted.”
He said research has shown some species avoiding overhead lines for miles and argued that a 765 corridor would create new artificial boundaries in otherwise continuous Driftless habitat.
“The loss and fragmentation of habitat is absolutely major,” said Danielson. “You are talking about fences of flickering light and noise through some of the last intact valleys and ridges in this part of the world.”
He compared the constant crackle and hum of a high voltage line during damp and foggy conditions to the loudest natural sounds rural residents know.
“In terms of loudness a big transmission line can match the sound of the quietest wild place you can find and in wet weather it rises to the level of the spring dawn chorus,” said Danielson. “So the line is as loud as the loudest demonstrations of birds and it is there all the time on top of everything else.”
Danielson added that while not everyone is sensitive to electromagnetic fields some people experience real symptoms under long term exposure.
“The electromagnetic fields under a line like this and about a hundred feet out from the outer wire can be on par with running a microwave oven all day every day,” said Danielson. “For some people that is debilitating and for them a home under a 765 line is not the same house anymore.”
He linked those environmental and health concerns to long term economic impacts arguing that new homebuilding and small business investment would be undermined in communities that depend on scenery and quiet.
“If you are out there looking for a natural asset and you crest a ridge to see a 765 line the odds are you will keep driving,” said Danielson. “New homes and businesses are the number one source of revenue for our local governments and this kind of project chips away at that.”
Kielisch explains how eminent domain and value losses work
Following Danielson, forensic real estate appraiser Kurt Kielisch stepped to the podium and told the crowd his job is to give a ground level view of what happens if MariBell moves into the eminent domain stage.
Kielisch said he has spent more than four decades appraising properties in condemnation cases and emphasized that eminent domain is rooted in the Constitution rather than in ordinary real estate deals.
“Eminent domain is a sovereign right of government to take private property for the greater good of the public,” said Kielisch. “Out of that the Constitution and our courts have made it very clear that the property owner is to receive just compensation and that the property owner is to remain whole.”
He explained that remaining whole means the combined value of the land that remains plus the cash payment must equal what a property was worth before the taking.
“If you are worth three hundred thousand dollars in the beginning you should be worth two hundred fifty thousand in property plus fifty thousand in cash in the end,” said Kielisch. “That is what keeping you whole really means and that is what our firm focuses on.”
Kielisch warned property owners to be wary of early nominal offers that arrive before a full appraisal and often include bonuses tied to waiving rights to a second opinion or to appeal.
“You may get what is called a nominal offer with a bonus if you agree not to seek a second appraisal or not to challenge the taking,” said Kielisch. “You have to ask yourself why they are offering you that and remember you have the right to a full second opinion that they must pay for if you act within sixty days.”
He outlined the steps from an initial offer through a second appraisal and into negotiation and appeal, culminating in a condemnation commission hearing and possible jury trial. He highlighted a Wisconsin rule that he said was designed to keep condemning agencies honest.
“There is a very important protection called the two thousand seven hundred dollar or fifteen percent rule,” said Kielisch. “If your final award is at least that much higher than the utility’s highest offer then the condemnor has to pay all your legal fees all your expert witness fees and all your court costs on top of their own.”
Kielisch said that rule makes low offers risky for utilities and gives landowners leverage if they are willing to pursue appeals.
“That rule can add up to a lot of money and it can kick them in the teeth if they are not playing fair,” said Kielisch. “If the difference between their offer and your evidence is huge their risk is very high and that is something a good negotiator can use for you.”
On valuation itself Kielisch stressed that Wisconsin law requires appraisers to look at the entire property rather than just the strip under the wires.
“The Wisconsin statute tells us to look at the whole property before and the whole property after,” said Kielisch. “We do not just appraise the easement strip because buyers and sellers look at the whole farm or the whole home and that is what value really is.”
He said studies of large lines in the 138 to 345 kilovolt range have shown typical residential value losses from the low teens into the thirties as a percentage of the entire property and that a 765 corridor would be more disruptive than anything Wisconsin has seen.
“The numbers we have for 345 lines are the minimum of what you can expect,” said Kielisch. “Seven sixty five is in a whole different league in terms of size noise and visibility so the impact will be greater than what we have measured so far.”
He also introduced the legal concept of an uneconomic remnant where what is left of a property after a taking is no longer economically viable.
“If the remainder of your property has substantially impaired economic viability or little value the law calls that an uneconomic remnant,” said Kielisch. “In that situation the power line company can be forced to pay the full market value before the taking and relocate you instead
Attorney Andrew Weininger presented on eminent domain
Attorney Andrew Weininger is an eminent domain lawyer who represents only landowners in fights over takings for projects like high voltage transmission lines. His firm has worked on major Wisconsin cases including Badger Coulee and has been involved in landmark litigation such as the Waller Supreme Court decision on uneconomic remnants. At the No 765 meeting he explained how landowners can protect themselves legally, how eminent domain really works in practice, and why an organized group has real power to shape or stop a project.
“I’ve crossed paths with Rob over the years” said Weininger. “I believe the first time was back in 2013 or so, with the Badger Coulee project that you heard of, who represented a group of landowners with regards to that project.”
He went on to note how the Supreme Court’s Waller decision remains a powerful precedent for people facing new transmission lines.
“The case, I think, went up to the Supreme Court twice, and it was a great victory for Wisconsin landowners” said Weininger. “And Kurt played a huge role in that decision, and really was an outstanding result in something that is still used by landowners and by our law firm to protect landowner rights in constant.”
A central concept in Andrew’s message was the idea of an uneconomic remnant. He explained that when a taking leaves the remainder of someone’s property with little or no viable economic use, the law can require the utility to buy the whole parcel instead of just paying for a strip under the line. That protection can apply even when the easement is close to buildings rather than directly on them.
“Under state law, if your property is going to lose is going to be of substantially impaired economic viability or little value, then the utility company actually has to offer you the option to sell your property and to be relocated” said Weininger. “And so that can come up, not only if the easement itself is going to be on your property or one of your buildings, but also if it’s close.”
He stressed that landowners have only a short window to challenge the legality of a taking once it is initiated. Beyond arguing over dollar amounts, there is a separate and very limited chance to contest the right to take at all or to challenge overbroad easement terms.
“There is also an opportunity as part of the eminent domain process to actually challenge the taking itself, and it’s a very limited window when you can challenge the taking” said Weininger. “But there’s a 40 day window when landowners or a property owner can challenge the taking.”
Andrew then clarified how just compensation must be measured under Wisconsin law. It is not just about the value of the easement area but about the change in value to the entire parcel.
“What Wisconsin law says is, with regards to compensation, you’re entitled to the value of your property before the power line, minus the value of your property after the power line, assuming completion of the property” said Weininger. “So it’s looking at the entire property.”
He was clear about who his firm serves. They do not work for utilities or governments. Their sole role is to stand with people whose property is being taken or damaged.
“We do represent property owners” said Weininger. “We don’t represent municipalities, we don’t represent utility companies, we don’t represent any aspect of the government, we only represent people, just like you, who are impacted by high voltage transmission lines.”
A big part of his talk was aimed at correcting a common fear that eminent domain means landowners have no rights and get nothing. He reframed eminent domain as the legal structure that gives owners enforceable rights to compensation and to fight unfair takings.
“I think that there’s a feeling that eminent domain is that people don’t have any rights, and that many people think that if eminent domain is used, that landowners you don’t get any money” said Weininger. “But the opposite is true many times when eminent domain is used, and many of the things that Kurt talked about with condemnation commission proceeding and all the way through a potential jury trial, that the use of eminent domain can protect your rights.”
He emphasized the importance of collective action. In his view serious projects like this are rarely changed or stopped by a few individuals working alone. It takes a larger organized group pushing in the same direction.
“To achieve a great result, many times it takes having a great group of people, just like we have here today” said Weininger. “If it’s just one or two or three people that are together and trying to push back against what is going on, very, very difficult, but when you have an engaged, well organized group of people like everyone here, there is a great opportunity to either stop the project, to move it to do any number of things.”
Weininger urged people to work public servant by public servant and lawmaker by lawmaker. He believes that elected officials respond both to conviction and to electoral realities. If enough organized voters care about this issue they can change political calculations in Madison and locally.
“I do think that is really important, especially when we have a group like this, where there’s probably 100 or maybe more people in this room, but everyone knows five people or 10 people that they can talk to, and the power of our group can just continue to expand” said Weininger. “I think maybe I’m naive, but I do think our state legislators want what’s best for their constituents, call me naive, but what they also want is to be reelected, and if enough people are pushing on this issue, and many elections are very close, and especially when we’re in a smaller kind of number of votes at stake, constant pressure and constant bringing attention to this issue the project maybe any promises, but anything can happen, can be stopped.”
He also framed the coming fight as a long campaign rather than a single hearing or vote. He prepared the room for setbacks and stressed that persistence is often what wins in large infrastructure cases.
“It may not happen right away, very likely won’t happen right away, it’s going to be a very difficult process” said Weininger. “If you go in with that mindset and you really have a commitment, just doing whatever it takes, a lot of times it’s a war of attrition, and in the end, it can really, really work out.”
Looking ahead he outlined what will happen once Dairyland submits its application to the Public Service Commission. That filing triggers formal opportunities for public comment and for landowners to intervene as parties with their own evidence and arguments.
“PSC application hasn’t been submitted yet, but it may be submitted this summer or fall” said Andrew Weininger. “There’ll be an opportunity for public comment, and then there’ll be an opportunity to intervene, so we represent, or we have represented, property owners as interveners, either individual property owners or a group of people, and help work through the PSC proceedings.”
He distinguished between how landowners should work together at the PSC stage and how cases unfold later when it comes to specific compensation claims. At the PSC it is most efficient to move as a single organized group while later on each parcel will have its own valuation case even if people still coordinate informally.
“For this for the PSC proceedings, I think that was the question that would be the most efficient way for us to form a group” said Weininger. “Very likely the PSC side of things would be as a group, and the compensation side would be more informal group, where we’re all sort of together, but each individual cases.”
He then responded to concerns about survey permission forms that some landowners had signed after door to door visits. While he said he would not have advised signing these, he also reassured people that doing so is not necessarily fatal to their legal position.
“I haven’t seen what was signed, I have seen in the past that there’s a like a one paragraph kind of agreement, whether you would allow them to come on and do surveying, or sometimes it has soil boring” said Weininger. “If you had come to me and asked me, should I, you know, accept it, I would probably say, no, it’s not worth it, but at the same time, if you have, I don’t think it’s, if it’s, it’s not, you know, there’ll be some surveying.”
Taken together Andrew’s comments framed eminent domain not as the end of landowner power but as the legal battlefield on which a well organized community can fight for fair treatment relocation when warranted and in some cases for stopping or reshaping the project entirely.
Upcoming meetings:
Vernon Electric Cooperative’s 90th Annual Meeting will be held on Thursday, February 26, 2026
Location: VEC headquarters building
110 Saugstad Rd, Westby, VW
Registration: 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Pasta Dinner: 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Business Meeting: 5:30 p.m.
In January, VEC members Carl Volden and Travis Klinkner submitted a Proposed Advisory Resolution to the Vernon Electric Cooperative Board. This Resolution asks Dairyland Power many questions and for a presentation about their 765kV Maribell Project. This Resolution will be on the agenda at the annual meeting. Vernon Electric members will be able to vote on this resolution.
Dairyland Power Open Houses
The MariBell Transmission Project is hosting open houses for local communities. There will not be a formal presentation—attendees may come and go at their convenience. Project representatives will be available to answer questions and provide project-related information.
March 10, 2026
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Gays Mills Community Center
16381 WI Hwy. 131, Gays Mills, WI 54631
March 12, 2026
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Retreat Sportsman’s Club
E3460 County Rd. N, De Soto, WI 54624
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